The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has given the green light to the request from the Barcelona and Villarreal clubs to play a LaLiga match in Miami this season. This would be a historic milestone for Spanish football.
The match, corresponding to matchday 17, is scheduled for the weekend of December 20, 2025. Both clubs have requested that the match be played at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, instead of Villarreal’s Estadio de la Cerámica.
“At its meeting on August 11, 2025, the RFEF board has learned of the request from the clubs Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to play their match of matchday 17 of the First Division in the United States,” the RFEF communicated.
RFEF
The RFEF, after reviewing the documentation and with the approval of the board, will forward the request to UEFA to begin the procedures for prior authorization from FIFA. The objective is for the match to be held at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 20, 2025, complying with FIFA regulations.
LaLiga has long prioritized the possibility of playing an official match in the United States. The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, had expressed his desire to do so during the 2025-26 season.
In the past, a similar attempt by LaLiga to play a match between Barcelona and Girona in Miami in January 2019 did not succeed due to opposition from the RFEF, UEFA, and FIFA.
In 2024, FIFA established a working group to analyze the consequences of playing official matches outside their territories, after initially showing their opposition to the idea.
This decision comes after legal action by LaLiga partners in the United States, Relevent Sports, against FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). Subsequently, the parties reached an agreement and the lawsuit was dismissed. The RFEF, under the presidency of Rafael Louzan, also now supports the plans.
In July, the Italian football federation approved Serie A’s request to play the league match between AC Milan and Como in Australia this season.
In the case of Villarreal vs. Barcelona, all involved federations (RFEF, USSF, UEFA, CONCACAF and FIFA) must give their approval.
It should be noted that the Spanish Super Cup is already played outside of Spain, with the RFEF holding the competition in Saudi Arabia in 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
